After debuting on 3DS in 2012, the latest edition of Mutant Mudds arrives for PS4 along with its trademark unforgiving level of difficulty.

And this is only the first level...

I'd be lying if I said I understood Mutant Mudds' plot from its opening cut scene, which, as far I can tell, is just a very brief, random slideshow of pixelated images. But according to Nintendo's website, you're a boy named Max who receives special intel revealing the location of a meteor impact site that's spawning Mutant Mudds (the bouncy brown things in the screenshots, if you're curious). Now you must venture forth from your secret hideout in the jungle to locate the meteor and destroy it for good.

In practice, what that means is jumping and shooting your way through about 40 levels of some of the hardest 2D platforming around. You only have three health points and no extra lives. Die before you reach the one mid-level checkpoint and you go back to the beginning. Rather than the Mudds themselves, your most lethal enemies are falling to your death and hitting one of the myriad spikes that line the floor, walls and ceilings. Touch them once, even just brushing against its side, and you're sent back to the beginning.

Sometimes it's hard to tell if certain enemies are in the foreground or background

Right from the get-go, things are very difficult with the first stage being a practical panoply of spikes in places. It doesn't get any easier in later levels, but luckily Mutant Mudds at least allows you to attempt any of its initial four worlds in any order you want, meaning you won't be stuck torturing yourself with the same one over and over. Getting through any of the levels requires a good deal of multitasking. Navigating past the series of spikes usually necessitates quick-fingered combinations of jumping, ducking, shooting, or hovering with your jetpack. To help, you'll be able to choose from one of three power-ups: an increased range of fire for your gun, a longer hover time for your jet pack, or a vertical boost straight up into the air. Some levels can only be beaten with one of these equipped; whereas in others, they just make things a bit easier. Unfortunately, if you get halfway through a stage and realise you need a power-up that you don't currently have, you're forced to quit out to get it thus losing your checkpoint progress.

What really makes Mutant Mudds a struggle to get through is its insistence that you pick up absolutely all of its collectibles before you can progress. That means 200 coins in each level (100 in the regular level and another 100 in their respective secret stages), as well as the flashy blue star thing at the end (sorry, I don't know its technical name). If you die without getting to a checkpoint, you lose your coins and have to collect them all again, forcing you to go over the same areas repeatedly until you perfect them. This makes Mutant Mudds feel like it's trying to milk as much play time out of its very short levels as possible, turning it into a tiresome, repetitive experience. Once you've got your 800 coins and your eight blue star things, you're allowed to fight a boss for that world. Beat it, and you'll unlock one of the levels in the final world (which follows the same principles).

If things weren't hard enough, now the monsters are all ghosts and can't be killed

Another aspect that needs mentioning is Mutant Mudds' depth-of-field mechanic which is carried over from its 3DS days. At certain points, you will need to hop into the background of a level to progress. While this might have looked impressive on a 3D device, it serves no real purpose on PS4. Furthermore, it can occasionally be difficult to tell whether some enemies (such as the big angry chimney things) are in the foreground or background, as the difference is essentially a slightly lighter shade of grey.

There's also a bit of a control issue that can cause some annoyance. A lot of commands are mapped to the X button such as jumping, dropping down, transitioning to the background, and hovering. If you try to drop down when one pixel of your character is still over an adjacent solid ledge, you will jump up, which is usually fatal in a game with a lot of spikes on its ceilings. Similarly, if you jump near a portal to reach a coin, you can accidentally transition into the background, leaving you with no way back to collect it. The hit detection is also sometimes off. On one level, I was able to pass through a wall of spikes unharmed while the same ones would kill me at other times.

If you don't mind brutally unforgiving games and like playing the same stages over and over, you might enjoy Mutant Mudds. Personally, that kind of gameplay bores the heck out of me and I can only tolerate it in short bursts. There's a sense of satisfaction (or perhaps it's relief) when you finally 100% a level but for me, the frustration it takes to get there doesn't make it worthwhile.

+ It will take you a long time to beat all its levels and collect everything

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Thanks for the awesome review! I enjoyed the remake of the original (Mutant Mudds Deluxe) on Wii U but this super-difficult sequel seems way too irritating to be fun.

Stephen Palmer (sp483): A lot of other sites give it a high score, so I know I'm in the minority. But for me a good challenging game makes you want to keep playing until you beat it. With this one, the focus on repeatedly having to comb every inch of it to collect all its coins over and over again in order to progress just made me want to stop playing each time I died. Plenty of others like it, though, so people should probably weigh it up against other reviews and decide for themselves if it's for them.

Amanda Kirtlan (amandakirtlan): Again, a honest, well written and great review. Don't get me wrong, I like a challenge but it's annoying when developers release games that are extremely difficult just to mask the length of the game and actual content. All it does is make the game very monotonous. Plus there seems to be more of them being released lately. This is one game I won't be playing, even if my boyfriend has the game :p

Tylerh1701: Totally disagree. I loved it. It's not nearly as tough as the later levels on games like Super Meat Boy and Electronic Super Joy.

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Super Meat Boy handled difficulty very well as it made me want to keep retrying every time I failed. Would you say Mutant Mudds Super Challenge has that same "Just one more time!" hook? It's hard to tell after reading a few different reviews. By the way, I have yet to play Electronic Super Joy. How is it?

Tylerh1701: Its very different because the levels are longer. But there are checkpoints in the middle so you only really have to complete half a level at a time, making the whole game very doable. I don't think its as addictive as super meat boy or anything, but I still had a ton of fun with it. As you slowly figure out better ways to handle each tough section, you definitely get a good sense of progress. Its a super tough platformer, but I found it entirely managable, I was able to blast through it over the weekend. Electronic Super Joy is really weird but good. I'd probably rank it below Mutant Mudds Super Challenge tho. ESJ felt even shorter, and it has a couple weird platforming twists that I didn't care for. Definitely worth a playthrough tho. I beat the three core worlds but game up on some of the bonus levels that were just driving me insane.

Stephen Palmer (sp483): My main problem with it wasn't the difficulty as much as it was the monotony of having to repeat so much stuff when you died (e.g. collecting all the coins again). But I'm glad you liked the game. I know it gets a lot of high scores other places, so I was expecting some disagreement.

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): I don't know, Mutant Mudds Super Challenge seems like too much memorization is required. The bit about not having the right equipment and getting stuck sounds very annoying. Reminds me of Mega Man X6. I'll probably pass on ESJ. There are too many 2D platformers to keep up with. Now, back to Headlander...

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Challenge, replayability, and monotony seems like a very delicate balance for game developers. One thing I always think about is that developers get so good at their own games that they don't realise they're making it as tough as it is. This is probably an exception, though, because it is called "Super Challenge" after all.

Tylerh1701: I never had that big of a problem with having the wrong equipment. You have to fully beat the level once anyway. So I would play through the main level with the jetpack powerup cuz I thought it was the best by far, and note which piece of equipment I needed to get to the hidden level door. Then after beating the level, I'd quickly swap and go back with the right one. I never ran into an issue where I couldn't beat a level without a specific powerup, accessing secret doors were the only thing that I saw required a different upgrade type. There is a bit of repetition, no doubt, but you can keep it to a minimum with good strategy. I'm just starting Headlander. It's certainly strange. Hopefully the combat picks up a bit.